Airlines from Taiwan in the 1960s
By Henry Tenby
Who can remember Winner Airways, Civil Air Transport, Far Eastern Air Transport, and Air America? All these classic airlines were operating from Taiwan’s famous downtown Sung Shan airport in the 1960s. Whilst Taiwan government owned China Airlines was also operating in the 1960s, most of the other Taiwan airlines from the 1960s are now long gone, but we are happy to share photos of the interesting airliners in this photo report.
Civil Air Transport Convair 990 B-1008 taken at Tokyo Haneda circa 1961.
Civil Air Transport was a major carrier of the day, possibly bigger than Air China. They operated C-46 Commando, DC-4 and DC-6 aircraft, as well as the famous Convair 880 jetliner. Air America was a CIA front airline set up by the US Government to operate clandestine operations in the Vietnam war theatre, and they chose Taiwan as a friendly base removed from the conflict. Winner Airways operated Vickers Viscounts and Lockheed Electras. FEAT Far Eastern Air Transport competed with Air China on medium haul services within the region and their 1960s fleet included Se210 Caravelles and Viscount 800s.
Henry Tenby has been collecting 35mm aircraft slides since the early 1980s, and has amassed the collection of vintage Japanese airline slides presented in this posting from his collection.
I am looking to purchase 35mm Kodachrome aircraft slide collections. Please contact me: henrytenby at gmail dot com
Thank you very much for visiting this page, and enjoy!
Civil Air Transport DC-6 B-1006 at Hong Kong Kai Tak circa 1959.Civil Air Transport DC-4 B-1002 at Tokyo Haneda circa 1959.Civil Air Transport C-46 Commando B-908 taken at Tokyo Haneda in the late 1950s.Civil Air Transport Convair 990 B-1008 taken at Tokyo Haneda circa 1961.China Airlines Boeing 727-100 B-1818 at Tokyo Haneda airport circa 1968.Winner Airways Vickers Viscount 800 B-3001 possibly at Taipei Sung Shan airport circa 1968.Winner Airways Lockheed L-188 Electra B-3057 at Oakland prior to delivery to Taiwan in the late 1960s.Air America was a CIA owned airline that did clandestine indoctrination work in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. They had an operational base in Taiwan, and this C-46 of Air America B-858 is seen at Taipei in the mid 1960s.Civil Air Transport C-46 Commando B-840 most likely photographed in Taiwan in the late 1950s.Far Eastern Air Transport Se210 Caravelle B-2503 at Taipei Sung Shan circa late 1960s.
